With the Boy Scouts of America having finally dropped their opposition to homosexual scouts1, a new organization called Trail Life USA has formed. Trail Life will be a safe space for those homophobes who simply can’t abide having homosexuals around, at least not openly. Though Trail Life is new, it’s working to swell its ranks by poaching disgruntled bigots from the Boy Scouts. The Orrs are a family who’ve proudly switched teams.
But the Boy Scouts had decided to admit gays, and Ron Orr, a tall, soft-spoken man with a firm handshake, is clear about his Christian faith and what it says about homosexuality: It is a sin that cannot be tolerated.
His son agreed.
Well of course he did. After all, Deuteronomy 21:18-21 tells us:
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father…Then shall his father…lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city … And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice…And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.
It’s impressive that Mr. Orr has time for Trail Life, what with only six days in his week2, and presumably most of that time being spent stoning blasphemers to death3. After all, it’s not as though the Bible is a buffet where you can pick and choose things as you see fit, right?
Anyhow, here’s a wildly unfair photo of some new Trail Life scouts at a recent meeting:
[Photo credit: LM Otero / AP]
There’s something familiar about this, but I just can’t put my finger on it.
Footnotes:
Homosexual adult volunteers, however, remain unwelcome. ↩︎
“On six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be sacred to you as the sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Anyone who does work on that day shall be put to death.” Exodus 35:2↩︎
“Blasphemers must be stoned to death. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying…he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him.” Leviticus 24:13-16 ↩︎
